gurpsfandomcom-20200214-history
The Mummy of the British Museum
This is the fifth adventure in the Tavistock Expeditions campaign. Session 1 The new bi-monthly edition of the Tavistock Foundation’s magazine Voices ''from Beyond ''is out, featuring tales of two of the party’s previous adventures – ''Alpine Landslip and The Tacitus Manuscript. But in order to make it look like the Foundation has wider resources, as well as protecting their identities now that the SS-Ahnenerbe seem to be interested in them, neither article named them. Professor Dalgetty thought they dropped the treasure hunt at the right point. Though it cost the Foundation a fortune in aeroplane and salvage boat hire for no return of Spanish gold or silver, clearly the point of the spirits’ guidance was directing them to the mysterious sphere. Which arrived safely in Britain incidentally, but since the Navy carried it across the Atlantic to avoid sea-monsters they have demanded involvement in its investigation. Mrs. Tavistock would rather have kept it in-house, but again Dalgetty backed the party’s decision. The Foundation are thinking deeply about how to salvage the treasure. Funds are tight now, so for a while it looks as if international trips are out. Luckily, a possible investigation in London has come to light. Dalgetty seemed a bit dubious about this one (he has previously been sceptical about those favoured by Mrs Tavistock’s ‘spirit guide’) but to avoid prejudicing them he decided to send the party to meet the instigator without a briefing. The person they need to talk to is Dr Henry Pownell. Mrs. Stanley managed to find an assistant at her favourite bookshop who had heard of him from the Egyptological studies section – he is the co-author on a couple of respected texts on the translation of hieroglyphics. The author profile in the books list him as a researcher in the British Museum, and the assistant passed on a piece of juicy gossip – another of the post-doctoral researchers in the Museum died there a couple of weeks ago. Apparently it was a heart attack while he was working alone, late at night. Donald phoned Dr Pownell at his home, as instructed, and invited him to dinner a couple of nights later at a discreet private room in a nice hotel. Kohath used his knowledge of the medical bureaucracy to get a look at the post-mortem report on Dr Steven Hawker, Assistant Curator of Egyptology. It didn’t seem to be an in-depth investigation: he was an overweight man in his forties, there were no signs of violence on the body, and his lungs were badly scarred by a gas attack in the Great War. The internal signs were consistent with heart failure, which was the cause of death listed on the death certificate. The body had been returned to his family and the report advised the coroner to return a verdict of natural causes, which he duly did. Pownell turned up to the meal with a copy of the Daily Sketch (a Conservative tabloid newspaper – later it merged with the Daily Mail ''which is its modern equivalent). It featured a scare-story about a cursed mummy coming to the Museum: Re-ah-hep-tu was an evil sorcerer, buried deep in the desert with no grave goods nor texts from the ''Book of the Dead in the hope that his spirit would not be able to find its way to the afterlife, nor haunt inhabited regions. The mummy was found by an English explorer, and given an immediate export licence. Pownell tells them that the truth is, the Curator of the Cairo Museum demanded that it be either taken out into the desert and re-lost, or removed from the country immediately. The British Museum has written to the Cairo Museum for further details of this story. The mummy is now in the labs below the Museum, and ten days ago Pownell was working late when he saw a mummy walking along the corridor. Pownell promptly ran away and hasn’t been in the building after dark since then. His boss and co-workers mocked him, pointing out that Re-ah-hep-tu was fully bound – even if he had risen from his packing crate, he would have had to bunny-hop around and would be unable to attack with his arms bound to his sides. Three nights later Dr Hawker was working late in the same lab where the mummy is stored. He was found dead in the corridor. Pownell’s fear that this was linked to the mummy was dismissed by the others. Hawker was never well since the gas attack in the trenches, the consequent lack of exercise made him overweight and short of breath, and him having a heart attack surprised no-one. The party wanted him to sneak them into the Museum, but Pownell was not going for that. The Sketch story has attracted a bit of attention from morbid thrill-seekers so Dr Leicester, the Curator, has banned visits from staff members’ friends till the mummy goes on display. Pownell also works in a neighbouring lab to the one where the mummy is, so can’t casually take outsiders in to see someone else’s work. When they then started discussing sneaking in without his obvious help, he pointed out that they could try asking. Dr Leicester does seem annoyed at the Sketch’''s sensationalist take. Since they come from a Foundation that might play it up even more, he might be prepared to co-operate if it would help him move the angle they might take away from the ‘Curse of the Mummy’. The party decided that Donald and Mrs Stanley would be the ones to ask for an interview. Session 2 The players started by planning their response for when Dr Leicester, Curator of Archaeology, refused to meet them. Which was undermined when he agreed to their interview, so Donald and Mrs Stanley met him in his nice sunny office, well above the basement lab where Re-ah-hep-tu lay. Dr Leicester heard them out politely but reserved judgement. He had been inundated with requests from fringe groups and individuals since the story in the ''Daily Sketch, so initially treated them as one more of the kind. However, he had heard of one of the respectable archaeological digs Mrs Stanley had worked on, so he softened his attitude slightly. Donald then brought up the possibility of sponsorship to get them in – which improved Leicester’s attitude still further. However, the sum mentioned was more than the Foundation has available at the moment, and likewise more than Donald was prepared to put up from his family money. He didn’t admit that though, and discussed possible deals which he could “take back to the financiers of the Foundation.” The interview was interrupted at this point by a fire alarm – there was a fire in the basement, started by an electrical fault. After the all-clear, Mrs Stanley went to the Museum’s offices and enquired about opportunities in a volunteering position. Because Egyptology is very fashionable, they have a long waiting list, but she also enquired about the Mesopotamian section since she has worked on digs there. She was sent to the appropriate office and interviewed. Again, the legitimate digs she had been on were persuasive, and the people interviewing her had not heard her name in conjunction with less ‘formal’ activities, so she was accepted and would be shown around next day. As they chatted, she asked about the fire and was told that there had been a lot of excitement from the building infrastructure lately – last week a blockage in the main sewer pipe backed up all the toilets, and lights flickering had become a regular problem. Dr Pownell was in contact again later. After their interview, Dr Leicester had received the reply from Cairo Museum’s Director. Two previous mummies have been found in similar circumstances: in each case the museum suffered a string of deaths, accidents and bad luck until the mummies were once again buried in the desert and their locations forgotten. Dr Ahwab apologised for not accepting the body and then immediately having it returned to the desert, but one of the casualties of a previous sorcerer-mummy was the Chief Curator of the Museum, and as a man with a young family he didn’t want to take the risk of having it on the premises even for a few hours. The ‘string of accidents and bad luck’ sounded remarkably like backed-up toilets and electrical fires to the party… The letter also contained more detail of the Ancient Egyptians’ treatment of sorcerers. The concept of a ‘lost’ burial in the desert as punishment for evil sorcerers is engraved on the walls in the Temple of Karnak, amongst other places. It says that destroying the body of a sorcerer, for example by feeding him to crocodiles, will release his spirit to haunt the city. Only proper mummification and burial rituals will send him over to the afterlife where he cannot harm the living. The burial site for an evil sorcerer should be ‘lost in the sands’ so that no other can use his power, or speak with him to learn his evil rituals. No artifacts will be buried with him, so that he has no wealth in the next world. There must be no script from the Book of the Dead in his resting place to help his journey to the afterlife, in the hope that his evil spirit will wander for centuries trying to pass the tests of the Gods before passing through their gates into the afterlife. They decided to give Mrs Stanley a few days in the Museum to get to know the routines and see if she can work out a way to get them in, but on only her second day Dr Leicester called Donald. He had been researching the Foundation, and decided that their magazine would be a good source of positive publicity. If Donald wanted to bring in witnesses to the exorcism ceremony which would solve the problem that would be acceptable. It would be held in the early afternoon of the following day. Leicester’s decision relied on his view that the Ancient Egyptian ‘Gods’ were mere projections of the Devil’s minions trying to tempt people into sin. An expert Christian exorcist could drive out demons that their feeble powers could not. Kohath knew that religious ceremonies rely on psychic power, so the presence of either him or Albert would scupper things. So they would attend the Museum, but stay out of the room, along the corridor so their auras did not interfere with the priest’s power. The party members going into the room took whistles to summon them (and concealed handguns!) in case things went wrong. Also in the room were other witnesses: journalists, and representatives of occult-interest groups like the Foundation. A Catholic priest, Father Damon McGuire, performed the exorcism. It was a disaster. As he proclaimed the words to drive out the demon, the figure of Re-ah-hep-tu rose from the table to which he had been transferred, leaving his wrapped body behind. He appeared to be a strong, deeply tanned middle-aged man, nude but for a loincloth and sandals. As he advanced on the priest, Father McGuire presented his crucifix forcefully and commanded the spirit to begone. Forcing himself on as if against a high wind, Re-ah-hep-tu closed the distance and then reached into the priest’s chest. Father McGuire gagged for a moment before returning to a strained repetition of the banishment. The party was blowing their whistles frantically, and the other witnesses variously ran for the door or fainted. The official photographer was the exception, standing at his post to secure a picture of the spirit with its hands in the priest’s chest. Haggart alone stood motionless, stunned into immobility by the sight. Donald, Willie, and Mrs Stanley whipped out their pistols and fired – much to the surprise of Dr Leicester. At that close range none of them missed, but Re-ah-hep-tu didn’t even notice the bullets passing through him and smashing into the lab walls. Luckily, the crossfire didn’t hit any living people. Since bullets had failed, Willie drew a knife and closed in, plunging it deep into the solid-looking chest, only to pass straight through it. He distracted the spirit though, which left the priest alone and thrust its hands into his chest. Willie felt an icy chill surround his heart. Kohath and Albert whipped the door open, guns in hand. This was a particularly terrifying sight for those who were just running at it from the inside, to be confronted by gunmen in their way. One of the running men vomited in fear, the rest screamed as they plunged through the doors, too fast to stop. Albert caught sight of the Egyptian with his hands in Willie’s chest and it brought back memories of the zombies of Dominica – combined with the effect of being splattered with a stranger’s vomit, he lost his lunch too. “The amulets!” cried Donald, grabbing up a window pole, “They contain him!” He rushed up to the table and with the hook at the end of the pole started ripping apart the mummy’s bandages, looking for magical amulets. Mrs Stanley joined him with a retort stand grabbed from a workbench. Kohath powered into the fight, confident that his psi-blocking power would banish the ghost. Instead, its only effect was to block the power Father McGuire was pouring into the exorcism. Willie tried to fight Re-ah-hep-tu but in vain. He could feel the life-force draining from his heart. Suddenly he was yanked sideways by Mrs Stanley, surprising the ghost as much as it did him, and the drain was lost. Kohath plunged straight into the spirit, expecting his psi-null state to block its attacks and perceptions, but instead felt his own life-force being drained out while the spirit turned and also attacked Mrs Stanley. Feeling his power blocked, the priest and his assistant abandoned the exorcism and started hauling fainted bodies to hopeful safety outside the lab. Donald and Mrs Stanley held two of the amulets within the spirit-body and Kohath tried to power them up by pouring magic power into them, but they didn’t seem to affect Re-ah-hep-tu’s ability to drain Kohath and Mrs Stanley simultaneously. She called out to Dr Leicester and Haggart to bring more amulets. Donald slammed Mrs Stanley out of the spirit’s range, but in the process tripped over one of the fainted bodies. “We need all the amulets!” Mrs Stanley realised and they scrambled away from it. Dr Leicester triumphantly snatched the big pectoral from amidst the mummy’s wrappings, accidentally beheading it in the process so the head fell off the table and bounced across the lab floor. The photographer grabbed a shot of that moment, which Leicester may have trouble living down in the archaeological community… Leicester threw the pectoral to Kohath and continued rummaging in the rapidly-shredding bandages. While Kohath tried to hold the pectoral in the right position, the others converged on the body to find the remaining magic amulets. Re-ah-hep-tu ignored them all in favour of draining the life-force from a fainted body on the floor. Donald tried to drag the unconscious body away, but the spirit finished draining its life-force and turned on him. Amulets flew around the room as everyone tried to jockey for the right position – Donald feeling very weak trying to escape the spirit’s grasp and get out of the way, everyone else surrounding it and trying to hold the amulets in the right positions. The ghost plunged its hands back into Willie again and drew out more of his life-force as everyone jostled to get their amulets into position and Kohath poured more power into them. Suddenly, it worked. Re-ah-hep-tu vanished, presumably back into his mummy, just as Albert charged into the room. They rushed to restore the amulets to their former place, as the GM uttered the immortal request: “Someone make a First Aid roll to bandage the head back on.” Session 3 The party retired to their hotel for rest for those who had lost life-force to Re-ah-hep-tu’s attacks. They only managed 36 hours of undisturbed rest before a frantic midnight phone call from the Museum: Re-ah-hep-tu had risen again, the security staff seeing him walking through the corridors. Sensibly, they had stayed out of his way and frantically phoned round for guidance. The party advised them to evacuate the museum – exactly what the Directors had been doing, but they had been hoping for something more positive. Next morning, the door to the lab where Re-ah-hep-tu was stored was found to be open, the lock apparently either picked or magically opened. The party attended the Museum’s morning meeting and found out that police had reported that two rough sleepers and one street-sweeper were found dead in the streets close to the Museum. Another homeless man, this one drunk at the time, testified that he saw a man in ‘just his underpants’ walking away from the corner where the two had been sleeping. This emphasised the urgency of finding a solution. Worried by the open lab door, the party doubted the reliability of the Museum’s security staff, and advised that they should be temporarily laid off and an external company brought in – people whom the Museum has used in the past on special events. The Museum directors decided that this would be insulting to good, reliable people on no other basis more than the party’s mistrust, and rejected the suggestion. The Museum directors did come up with a stopgap plan, for which they needed extra security staff, so they did bring in more men. Their job was to sheepdog the ghost whenever he escaped – running the streets ahead of him (he still can’t move quickly) to move on anyone in his path. Though the newspapers agreed to keep it quiet to avoid public panic, this was not a good long-term solution. It took quite a while of people throwing suggestions around, mostly involving lead coffins and deep-sea trenches, before they remembered the solution that had been found two generations earlier. Since Donald’s grandfather had been one of the Beresford Travellers, many of the party had read Theo’s books about them. Kohath and Mrs Stanley recalled the Tibetan adventure, which was resolved with a Soul Trap scroll imprisoning a vengeful Chinese ghost who had posed as a minor Goddess. They realised that this was their ideal solution: a Soul Trap spell to imprison Re-ah-hep-tu’s ghost in perpetuity. All they needed was a necromancer to cast it, and a fabulously valuable gemstone to act as the trap. The latter was no problem – Donald persuaded the Museum that, under the circumstances, it would be to their advantage to divert one of the finer examples from their gemstone collection to be the starring feature in a new high-profile display, the eternal prison of the evil Ancient Egyptian sorcerer who had brought death to the streets of 20th-century London. But necromancers are, understandably, reluctant to let their studies become known. They are secretive and mostly evil. Trying to track one down was not going to be easy. It was Donald who realised the solution lay in looking at convicted necromancers. He used the Museum’s contacts to open the doors to the police Occult Activities Unit, who agreed to help. Most convicted necromancers had been promptly hanged, so there would be no ‘Hannibal Lector’-type prison cell interviews. By researching their trial details, though, Donald found that a man called John Voluter was an expert witness for the Crown in several trials, and from his testimonies Donald worked out that he had a significant knowledge of the necromantic school of magic. Vouched for by the Occult Activities police and the Museum, Donald managed to get Voluter to admit that he was a ‘good necromancer’ and that he could cast the Soul Trap spell, but against a sorcerer as strong as Re-ah-hep-tu he would need help. All the party members agreed to be present to take part in the ritual, and Kohath loaned him the Foundation’s powerstone. The Museum also put forward the volunteers from their on-staff mages. Voluter brought the party members – those who were strong enough as those who had been drained were still weak – and the Museum’s mages and Egyptology staff into a spell ritual that backed him up with their power. Apart from the executioner’s hood Voluter wore to conceal his identity to the other participants, the casting was an anti-climax. The midday ceremony was timed to catch the mummy at what seemed to be his weakest time, and he was imprisoned in the gem without excitement. The Museum is now preparing their new exhibition, and expect it to be a smash hit. Not just because of the current popularity of Egyptology, but also the sensational draw of ‘The Curse of the Mummy’ and ‘The Sorcerer who Killed from Beyond the Grave’ as the tabloid press are calling it. Party members were offered a fortnight in a medium-grade hotel in Brighton at the Foundation’s expense to recuperate the health they lost to Re-ah-hep-tu’s energy-draining touch. Category:Adventures